GLASS AT NEW MANHATTAVILLE HOTEL

Harlem Bespoke:  The hotel at 410 West 126th Street and Morningside Avenue started up right before the pandemic and now the windows are finally being installed.  We walked this section Manhattanville last week and took the above photos and things are really moving quickly at this point in time.  Check out our past post for more details on the forthcoming tourist abode: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2023

REMEMBER: HARLEM'S OLDEST MONUMENT

Harlem Bespoke:  Harlem's oldest freestanding monument probably would be a small, modest grave dedicated by a father to his beloved five year old son who died an early death in the late 18th century.  The monument of the amiable child lies just north of Grant's Tomb at roughly 123rd Street and Riverside Drive and has been around since 1797.  The area was called Strawberry Hill (later to become the Claremont neighborhood) and a Scottish landowner would build this grave for his child who fell from the rocky edge of the nearby Hudson River.  As the estate was sold, George Pollock made the below request to all of the future landowners.  

FACADE INSTALLED AT 600 WEST 125TH STREET

Harlem Bespoke: What looks like a luxury condo building rising quickly at 600 West 125th Street is actualy student housing for Columbia University at the Manhattanville campus by the elevated Broadway subway station. This appears to be one of those situations that the new development is installing facade details before even topping off. From the looks of the massive crane that is still on site, there appears to be many more floors to go. Check out our past post from 2021 when the rendering was first revealed on the plywood out front: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2023

ASIAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN ART AT THE WALLACH

Harlem Bespoke: Dead Lecturer/distant relative: Notes from the Woodshed, 1950-1980 focuses on works by Asian American and African American artists whose approaches to abstraction provided alternatives to prevailing vocabularies for representation and resistance during the social movements of the 1960s and 70s, and for whom the parameters of visibility continue to remain a problem for thought today

EAT: THE HARLEM BARBECUE LIST 2022

Harlem Bespoke: Old time barbecue spots in Harlem such as Sherman's are disappearing but a new set of establishments have become local favorites in the past few years.  Below is the Summer 2022 best bets for the holiday weekend.

LISTEN: HARLEM CHAMBER PLAYERS AT THE FORUM

Thursday,  March 31st, 6:00PM-7:30PM, Harlem Chamber Players free concert at the Forum, 601 West 125th Street by Broadway. Women of the Movements, a special Women’s History Month performance and celebration of women composers. This LIVE concert will welcome the return of public events in The Forum’s Atrium which, due to the pandemic, has been closed to visitors for the past two years.  More details and online RSVP can be found on the official Harlem Chamber Players site: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2022

REMEMBER: A MANHATTANVILLE GAS STATION C. 2012

Harlem Bespoke:  We have been going on over a decade of photos taken for the blog of local gas stations that have been closed down and found these images in our archives of the one by the car wash in Manhattanville.   The above photos are from 2012 and shows the corner of 12th Avenue and 125th Street before everything was demolished.  Construction on site finally finished up in recent months and the after photos are pretty dramatic.

POP-UP COMMUNITY VACCINATION AT COLUMBIA

Harlem Bespoke: Columbia University provided 500 vaccinations for the community at a pop-up site within The Forum building at 125th Street and Broadway last weekend.  The goal is to get more vaccinations out to the underserved black and latino communities within West Harlem and Washington Heights in the next few weeks.  Those interested can schedule a weekend appointment up until the end of May by sending and email to the Wellness Center at the university: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2021

CONSTRUCTION: ANOTHER HARLEM HOTEL RISES

Harlem Bespoke: A few folks out there probably did not believe that another hotel would be arriving soon in Harlem but apparently 410 West 126th Street in Manhattanville has now made some major progress over the summertime months.  We  walked by the site located just west of Morningside Avenue this week and saw that the foundation has now been completed and the first floor has risen above ground.  The other hotel currently finishing up a few avenues east on 125th Street is the highly anticipated Mariott with the rooftop bar at the top floor and this type of hospitality development is a rare find uptown so the more the merrier.  Check our past post to see the final designs for this newest hotel on the west side which should be finishing up next year: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 

CONSTRUCTION: MANHATTANVILLE GLASS BUILDINGS

Harlem Bespoke:  More office building are now finishing up in Manhattanville but will there be a need for them is the big question.  The skyline looking east of Amsterdam has changed dramatically since two glass tower have risen on 126th and 127th Street but now a lot of workers are working remotely at home.  An original plan for a brewery on the 126th side does not appear to be happening any more and the one notable art gallery in the area has since closed: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2020

INTRODUCING: ARTISTS RESIDENCE AT STUDIO MUSEUM

Saturday, February 29th, 1:00PM-4:00PM, Artists-in-Residence Preview at Studio Museum 127th Street, 429 West 127th Street between Amsterdam and Convent Avenue. The Studio Museum in Harlem's 2019–20 artists in residence E. Jane, Naudline Pierre, and Elliot Reed open their studios to the public at Studio Museum 127. Visitors are invited to meet the artists and be among the first to view their works in progress in advance of their exhibition taking place at MoMA PS1 later in the year. Conceived at the formation of the Studio Museum over 50 years ago, the Artist-in-Residence program remains central to the Museum's mission. Open Studios is free and open to all.  More details and RSVP on the Studio Museum site: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2020

ART: DOZIE KANU AT STUDIO MUSEUM 127

Dozie Kanu: Function at the Studio Museum 127th Street, 429 West 127th Street between Amsterdam and Convent Avenue. Dozie Kanu: Function, the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition at Studio Museum 127. Function maps the arc of Kanu’s practice over the last three years through nine works that explore tensions between form and function, African and African-American craft traditions, and art and design.  Studio Museum is open on both Saturday and Sunday during the weekend.  More details on the Studio Museum site: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2019

ART: DOZIE KANU AT STUDIO MUSEUM 127

Friday, November 15th, 6:00PM-8:00PM, Dozie Kanu exhibit Opening Reception at Studio Museum 127th Street, 429 West 127th Street between Amsterdam and Convent Avenue. Dozie Kanu: Function, the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition at Studio Museum 127. Function maps the arc of Kanu’s practice over the last three years through nine works that explore tensions between form and function, African and African-American craft traditions, and art and design.  More details and RSVP on the Studio Museum site: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2019

CONSTRUCTION: A HOTEL IN MANHATTANVILLE

Harlem Bespoke:  Construction started up at 410 west 126th Street just west of Morningside Avenue in the past month and some might remember that a former carriage house was demolished last year to make way for a new building.  Those who have been keeping track will also recall that a developer had planned to build a mixed-use hotel back in 2015 that would also have a residential component.

CELEBRATE: A DECADE OF HARLEM PRIDE

Harlem Bespoke: This year World Pride celebrated 50 years of the historic Stonewall uprising that ignited the gay rights movement and uptown also a had a big milestone in the LGBT community.  Harlem Pride started back in 2009 as a small block part on West 119th Street in the Mount Morris Park neighborhood and now celebrated 10 years this past Saturday as a major community event over by the viaduct in Manhattanville.  The commercial corridor from West 137th Street on 12th Avenue was packed with local vendors, merchants, LGBT organizations and big corporate sponsors such as Google in celebration of diversity in Manhattan's iconic neighborhood where the drag ballroom scene originated.

SHOP: DEAR MAMA AT THE MANHATTANVILLE CAMPUS

Harlem Bespoke:  Dear Mama coffee shop from East Harlem is now opening a branch on the west end within the Columbia University Manhattanville campus.  While checking out the new exhibit at the nearby Wallach gallery, we noticed that window signage had already been place up at the lower commercial space of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on West 129th Street.  This intersection just west of Broadway could use a little more foot traffic and a stellar local cafe like Dear Mama should do the trick.  Read more about Dear Mama in our past post: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2018

BESPOKE: FASHION PHOTOS MANHATTANVILLE 2018

Harlem Bespoke: The elevated train and the viaduct location in Manhattanville has always been a top choice for fashion photographers over the past decade or so. A series of editorial photos taken by Billy Kidd featuring model Alpha Dia for Telegraph magazine highlighting Harlem's industrial architecture is a recent example of this phenomenon.  Local residents will recognize the 1 train platform or entrance at 125th Street in the above images and the iconic viaduct arches are also visible.  All of the clothing are from modern designers such as Versace but the overall mood is actually a retro 70s vibe.  More photos can be found on Instagram: @billykiddstudio

HarlemBespoke.com 2018

INTRODUCING: NEW EXHIBITS AT GAVIN BROWN

Sunday, March 4th, Jos De Gruyter & Has Harald Thys Exhibit at Gavin Brown Galleries, 439 West 127th Street by Amsterdam Avenue.  Jos De Gruyter & Has Harald Thys will be part of several new exhibits at the Gavin Brown Gallery this weekend.  More details can be found on the Gaving Brown site: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2018

EAT: BLUE CRAB MONDAYS AT LOUI LOUI

Harlem Bespoke:  We noticed that a crowd had been stopping by early in the evening at Loui Loui on Broadway just two blocks south of 125th Street and decided to check out what the daily offerings were about.  It turned out each day of the week has a specialty du jour that is priced just right and Monday was apparently blue crab night.

ART: LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER AT GAVIN BROWN

LaToya Ruby Frazier at Gavin Brown Galleries, 439 West 127th Street, east of Amsterdam Avenue.  A recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2015, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s artistic practice spans a range of media that incorporates photography, video and performance and centers on the nexus of social justice, cultural change and commentary on the American experience. This exhibition features three distinct recent bodies of work: Flint is Family, The Notion of Family, and A Pilgrimage to Noah Purifoy's Desert Art Museum whose themes address Frazier's deeply rooted and long held concerns exploring the legacies of racism, inequality, economic decline, access to healthcare and environmental justice.   More details on the Gavin Brown Gallery site: LINK